I knew his real name, Dave Mustar, here on the blog, we knew him as Dakota Viking. He's the #1 Nozzleman in the photo above. He's also here in the USS Carl Vinson's cruise book from 1989-1990.
I hadn't heard from him in a while, I had a quick note from him a while back telling me that he'd been busy but had some more stories to share.
Gonna have to wait a while for that. David died quietly, in his sleep, on the 23rd of February, 2026. A friend of his, JK, left the message of his passing in yesterday's comments.
I'm going to go back and read some of those posts he shared with us, you can too if you click on the Dakota Viking label over on the right.
I think I'm going to take some time away from the blog for a bit. Cuppla days at least, maybe longer. This is going to take some time to process. I think I've got one more post he sent me that I haven't published yet. I need to find that. But for now ...
I am saddened by his passing.
Ave Atque Vale
Through many countries and over many seas
I have come, Brother, to these melancholy rites,
to show this final honour to the dead,
and speak (to what purpose?) to your silent ashes,
since now fate takes you, even you, from me.
Oh, Brother, ripped away from me so cruelly,
now at least take these last offerings, blessed
by the tradition of our parents, gifts to the dead.
Okay, I did arrive safely, I did see where I was, whether or not I conquered anything (other than the madhouse of the highway) remains to be seen.
Grandsons were happy to see me, once they were done beating the crap out of me.
Good boys, just a bit, shall we say, over eager?
It's good to be back in the Old Line State.
More to come once I recover from the sleep deficit, one thing I will say is that there is virtually no snow in the Annapolis area. I was in winter until I crossed the Delaware.
The Nuke tells me that while we up north were getting hammered with the white, they got mostly rain.
Can't say it bothers me, kinda nice to walk outside and not have to stare at the ground to see if it's icy.
Once again it is time to mount up and head out. Boots and saddles, sea and anchor duty, etc., etc., etc.
Hopefully the roads will be like this ...
And not like this (à la Monday instant) ...
We can but hope.
I'm still amazed that after three hours of sleep (admittedly a very sound sleep) I was able to function for most of Wednesday.
I guess I'm just too busy to be tired.
Hey, it could happen!
See you from below the Mason-Dixon, not sure when, not sure how, but we'll meet again some sunny day. (At least I hope we're in for some more sunny days!)
Woke up to bright sun and blue skies on Tuesday, I was actually up by 0730, a rarity for me. Checked the driveway, the neighbors had started it the night before but it was dark, it was cold, so the decision was made to do it on the morrow.
No problem there, I'm retired, nowhere I need to go, nowhere I need to be. So, enjoy the morning. And I did!
Deck Steps - Tuesday, 24 February 2026 OAFS Photo
The plows on Monday made one pass down the street, so essentially wehave a one way street at the moment. I get it, where would the snow go if they went wider? I'll tell you where, on top of everyone's mailbox. No, not a great idea.
Driveway (before) - Tuesday, 24 February 2026 OAFS Photo
Even though the temperature is still below freezing, once you get down to the blacktop, everything melts pretty quickly. The last storm we had, just a few few inches, I didn't need to do anything, the sun took care of it.
With three feet on the ground (officially, hard to tell with all the drifts) the melting process takes longer. So the neighbor's snowblower is needed.
Driveway (after) - Tuesday, 24 February 2026 OAFS Photo
I did clear the deck and cut a path down to the driveway, the deck was fairly easy as the wind had blown most of the snow off the deck and ...
... onto the path below the stairs. Basically the deck was at the same level as the snow on the path. Yeah, that took some time to clean. But I had help, as in warm-ish temps and very little wind. Just a scoop at a time, no need to play Hercules trying to lift all of that snow at once. I mean, I've got the time, haven't I?
Back of the house - Tuesday, 24 February 2026 OAFS Photo
You can see that behind the house, due to the way the wind swirls around our home, we have a drift some ten feet or so from the actual back of the building. A nice path to get to the dryer vent and all that. So, that's always nice to have.
Supposedly we're getting more snow as you read this. I've heard an inch, I've heard five inches ... pick your meteorologist carefully.
Sigh, as long as I can get The Missus Herself to the airport at oh-dark-thirty I'll be fine. (As you read this, we've either been to the airport and back, or the flight was cancelled.) As I write this (Tuesday afternoon) the flight is still on time, flights are going out, flights are coming in. Always a good sign The governor has lifted the travel ban, so at this point in time, all systems appear to be go.
Finally!
I'll update as necessary.
Ciao!
Update:
The Missus Herself was safely delivered to the airport and Your Humble Scribe made it back to Chez Sarge in one piece. Of course, there isn't a lot of traffic out there at 0330!
Okay, you really can't see anything through the screen looking north from the top of the battlements here at Chez Sarge, couldn't be helped. The snow was coming down so fast and the wind was pasting it to all four sides of the house. That was at 0051 hours Monday morning (technically, Sunday night for those who hadn't gone to bed yet, that would be me).
Woke up to this Monday roughly 12 hours later ...
OAFS Photo
Okay, I slept until almost 1130 Monday morning. I woke up at 0830, listened to the wind howling and decided to stay in bed. Nothing to get up for and in my defense, I only had about six hours of sleep Saturday night. So I was paying down a sleep deficit. But every window was snowed over from the wind.
Anyhoo, it's still snowing as I write this, here's a few photos I took in the last hour ...
OAFS Photo
The two fences you can barely see through the snowy screen are six footers. Granted, there has been a lot of drifting due to the high winds during this storm, but I think you can agree, that's a lot of snow.
OAFS Photo
I managed to wedge open the kitchen door because I wanted a photo of the outside unobscured by the screen windows and there you have it, the Blizzard of '26.
OAFS Photo
See what I mean by "wedged open"?
Now this isn't my first rodeo (blizzard, snow storm, what have you) and it probably won't be the last. So far, as of 1530 on Monday, the wind has eased up and while the snow is still falling, it's starting to taper off a bit. It's not coming down at 3.5 inches an hour, like at the height of the storm, but only 0.3 inches an hour. Praise the Lord, we haven't lost power though a lot of folks in the area have. That snow is pretty heavy as the temperatures were near freezing. Heavy and wet.
Late yesterday the governor of Little Rhody announced a travel ban starting at one time for commercial vehicles and an hour later for private travel. Yeah, I bristled a little bit at the "order" banning travel, but seeing the results today (a number of tractor trailers stranded around the region causing the first responders to deal with that as opposed to helping the power crews and dealing with real emergencies) I realize that giving the governor that sort of power is probably necessary. People are idiots. Mind you, not bad people (though there seem to be a lot more of those these days) just not real smart.
If you're out and about during a travel ban, it's an $85 ticket, do it again, you might wind up in the hoosegow. We also get parking bans in this area, if you normally park on the street, you have to move your vehicle to a parking lot (towns provide a list of those) so that the plows can get through. Don't move? They will tow your vehicle, over 300 cars were towed in Providence as of Monday morning. People just not paying attention or just being assholes. Take your pick, we have a lot of both in the region.
Ya gotta love winter, and I do. Otherwise I would've retired down south (probably Maryland or Virginia) but the heat down there in the summer is way too much (mostly the humidity). Besides which, my roots are here in New England, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable anywhere else for any length of time.
So yeah, the weather outside IS frightful but ...
OAFS Photo
Okay yes, that was actually Sunday at lunch at Aidan's Pub, but you get the idea.
Stay safe out there my fellow New Englanders (and everywhere else hit by this blizzard), see you on the morrow.
The bubbas have finished clearing out the section of the property that the house and horse barn will be built on. That would be me standing in the center. This week will be devoted to clearing out the area for my Brother's house as well as cleaning up the driveway a bit. Some of the jungle and old trees are pretty close to it.
That is the good news.
The rest of the week was one of those weeks, you know, you HAVE to go through.
I'd had a checkup with one of my Doctors. Apparently, between my last physical and this one, I had lost 20 lbs. Which surprised me as I hadn't done anything too radical exercise wise.
Although in the last 2-3 weeks, I have started a walking agenda with 6000 steps as my daily goal. As it stands right now, of the 19 days since I started, I've made my goal 17 times. I'll explain in a bit why not 19 of 19. But, this walking thing hasn't been going on long enough to lose 20lbs.
Anyhow, back to the Doctor's visit. He poked and prodded and couldn't see anything obvious, so he recommended a colonoscopy.
Oh Joy!
Then he said a "Shiver me timbers" statement
He said "juvat, I don't know what it is, but it could be cancer."
That shut me up pretty quickly.
He then said he thought I should get a colonoscopy as well as an Upper GI endoscopy. To put it into a Fighter Pilot's vernacular, in addition to sticking a movie camera up your lower posterior anatomy, they were also going to stick one down your throat.
Oh Joy! And, no Beans, they weren't the same camera for both actions.
They scheduled the operation for last Wednesday. For those of you that may never have had an experience like this, the funnest part (No Beans not funniest!) is the prep. In case you didn't recognize that last sentence, it's sarcasm.
They give you this large bottle of liquid and tell you to drink it all at once. Shortly thereafter, you become one with your toilet. This goes on for about 12 hours.
Oh...No eating, drinking anything red or purple, just water. Not having a very large brain, I was concerned about downloading portions of that out my lower fire escape.
That, by far, was the worst part of the process. Got all that done, showed up for the episode. Got knocked out and woke up somewhat later in the recovery room.
The first question I asked the Doc was "What did you find?"
Fortunately, he knew what I was really asking.
"We did not find any Cancer!"
I'm sure that wasn't exactly the terminology, but I got the message.
Thank you Lord! (and Doc!)
I was released later that afternoon (Wednesday). None the worse the wear for the episode.
Except being hungry as all get up. But...NOOOOO....you've got to take it easy until tomorrow. RRIIIIIGGGGHHHHHTTTT!
Chicken Broth and water. Sounds delicious!
Oh, Needed a picture for this posting.
Beans, this is just for you. This is what my innard's look like.
So my buddy Tom and I (he of the breakfast club) went out for dinner, a beer, and a most excellent show Saturday night.
I mentioned this back in Januaryand last night it happened. Ally and her band are absolutely incredible. Tom and I had to get pictures with the young lady and she is as gracious as she is talented.
I will definitely go see her again. The venue she was at was The Narrows in Fall River, MA, a great place to see a show. It's not big, seats around 400, so you get to be right there with the music. The place has great acoustics, if you're ever in town, look it up. They have a lot of great musicians coming through.
But for now, it's late Saturday night as I write, so it's off to bed for the Sarge. Tomorrow evening it's supposed to snow like crazy, we'll see how that goes. I haven't been in a blizzard in a while, haven't missed it at all!
T.F. Green Long Term Parking at Oh-Dark-Thirty OAFS Photo
... that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The lines and the TSA at the airport,
Or to just get in the car against a sea of traffic
And by driving just do it.¹
It is, dear reader, almost time to head south again. The Missus Herself is off to California to visit LUSH for a fortnight leaving me, Your Humble Scribe, to once again fend for himself. As the invitation to visit The Nuke is always open, I decided to go there for a week, or so, rather than entertain myself at Chez Sarge.
I know what you're thinking, "But Sarge, all these gaming posts you've done recently, surely this is your opportunity to do that without interruption or snide remarks about 'being in front of a computer all day.'"
I know, I know, there is that. But Your Humble Scribe is a social animal (stop laughing) and requires the presence of other humans for to survive. No seriously, at certain times of year I don't mind the solitary life, but when the weather outside is frightful (but the fire is so delightful) I'd rather be around other people. Besides, there is a fireplace at Chez Tuttle et Nuke, whereas at Chez Sarge there is not.
The Nuke did ask me if I'd like to fly down. I thought about it for perhaps a second before responding with a resounding "NO!"
Mind you, I don't mind flying, but I do like to have a vehicle when I get to where I'm flying to. Now, the kids would let me use one of their vehicles when visiting, it's been mentioned. But here's the thing, they drive Teslas. Both of them (not both Teslas, there are more than two, both kids I mean).
While not opposed to the technology (I enjoy riding in a Tesla) I'm hesitant to take command of such an expensive vehicle when it doesn't belong to me. Rent a car? No, are you insane? This is me that has to pay for it, not my former company.
So I drive. Besides which, I enjoy driving my car. She's an awesome ride, comfortable, lots of get up and go, and she does well in inclement weather. Sure, it's a long-ish trip, roughly 420 miles which translates to 7 to 8 hours, but I don't mind.
It's also cheaper than flying, just parking at the airport costs more than the fuel required to get there and back again. It's less hassle than flying because, let's face it, going through TSA, and all the minor indignities that entails, just ain't worth it. I'll fly if it's a really, really long trip (takes more than a day), but for Maryland?
Where's my car keys?
And that's how I feel about that.
Why am I not going to California with The Missus Herself? Well, California is a long-ass flight, been there, done that, multiple times. Besides which, we're going on a trip to California in April, I didn't want to do it twice in one three month stretch. Too many (less than fond) memories of flying out to Sandy Eggo for work and staring out the window saying, "Damn, it looks like Mars down there," after crossing the Mississippi River. Hour after hour ...
So I drive. I can also get out and stretch my legs, get Dunkin' or Starbucks when I feel like it and generally act the care-free soul.
Yes, the other drivers can be a colossal pain, but as long as they're not trying to actively kill me, I can exercise due caution and avoid most of that.
It can be "interesting" but hey, it's what I like to do. I drive, because I can.
Yup, back in the saddle again, this time with Call to Arms: Panzer Elite from Digitalmindsoft Publishing. I originally got into this publisher's games via their Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront. When Panzer Elite came out, I jumped on it. I mean, y'all know my love of tanks. (And juvat, I'll try and find some screenshots of aircraft blowing up tanks in one of the games I have. I know it's there, just haven't played that particular setup yet.)
This one is in early release, in other words you buy the game and provide feedback to the developers and as the game gets updated, you get the updates. Basically you're paying for a finished product and get to help test that product. I don't mind, that particular business model seems to be working for a lot of game publishers.
Anyhoo, that opening photo is the standard player's view. You're hovering behind your tank so it's perhaps a bit more "arcade-ish" than IL-2 Sturmovik - Stalingrad. But it's great fun. Once you see something you might want to shoot at, you can zoom in to this view ...
Screenshot - Call to Arms: Panzer Elite
I thought I saw movement just beyond that farm ahead to the right, so I zoomed in to the gunner's position. Moments later a Pzkw IV came rumbling into view. He blew off my left track but this was his fate ...
Screenshot - Call to Arms: Panzer Elite
I'm not sure if the crew can bail out at this stage of development, they can in Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, in that game you can bring up spare vehicle crews to repair and re-man a vehicle. Which is pretty cool.
For now, if the vehicle dies, so does the crew.
As for Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, it looks like this ...
Screenshot - Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront
Screenshot - Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront
You can play zoomed out, with a map showing you your guys and known enemy positions, or you can zoom way in, like that last screenshot, to really see what's going on. You can order your units to advance, fight, withdraw, what have you, and they'll execute in real time. Then you can zoom in and watch the action.
It's immersive, very immersive.
I highly recommend both, if you've got at least this much oomph in your machine:
Minimum System Requirements
OS *: 64bit - Windows 7, 8, 10, 11
MEMORY: 16 GB RAM
GRAPHICS: GTX 1070 / RX 5600
DIRECTX: Version 11
STORAGE: 80 GB available space
SOUND CARD: DirectX 11 compatible
ADDITIONAL NOTES: SSD drive and fast internet connection needed for optimal gameplay
If you've got that, or better, you should be able to run these games. (juvat - Not sure if they'll run on a Mac, but the discussion page on Steam says "Yes" it runs on Windows and Mac.)
Sorry gotta run, Krauts are breaking through near St. Vith!
Me-410 Hornisse Screenshot - IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
I finally got around to hooking up my old Saitek X52 Flight Control System to the new desktop machine. I was somewhat worried that it wouldn't work well with the newer machine running Windows 11, but it does work and it seems (so far) to be working well.
It's been awhile since I've taken to the air in this old (but continually updated) flight sim which, to me, is the best I've ever "flown."
P-51 Mustang Screenshot - IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
What you see above is the view looking out of a P-51 over France. One thing vastly improved from the early versions of this flight sim (I hesitate to call it a "game") are the clouds. They looked pretty good back in late 2001, when the sim first came out, they look fantastic now.
The flight models in the later version of the sim are much improved as well. No flinging the old kite about the sky with wild abandon anymore, do that and guaranteed you'll stall or go into a spin. It was much harder to crash the bird in the early versions.
So while I play, I don't write, much.
I'm also working my way through the old HBO Rome series, one episode to go. I enjoy my time with Vorenus and Pullo, they're like old friends now.
Ah well, me and my fantasy worlds.
In other news ...
We're expecting more snow here, but the forecast has been bouncing all over the place, which is typical when they try to forecast ten days in the future. Right now it's raining, which was predicted. That might turn to snow after sundown.
Oh boy.
But on the bright side, the temperatures are in the high 30s during the day. Which after the last few weeks feels downright balmy!
So there you have it.
The rest of the world keeps working while the Old AF Sarge plays with his toys.
When I heard that the Reverend Jesse Jackson had passed away. I noted that he had been born in 1941, my first thought being, "Wow, he wasn't that old." Then I saw the report mentioned that he was 84 years old. So he had lived a good, long life.
I don't think of the 1940s as being all that long ago, probably because I spend a lot of time reading about World War II, which ended eight years before I was born. (VE day was exactly eight years before my birth.)
After all, I'm pushing 73, which doesn't, from my perspective, feel all that old. Though my knees and back are probably figuratively "rolling their eyes" at that statement. My brain is still pretty young-thinking, my body usually does feel its age. Especially after rough-housing with my grandsons Roberto and Finnegan.
Time flies, neh?
I had the thought that I had retired from the Air Force some 25 years ago ...
Nope, it's 27 years ago as of May. I retired from Raytheon 14 months ago, and I spent 25 years there.
Robert Duvall, one of my favorite actors, passed away this week as well. That one hit close to home as he was younger than my mother! I'd like to say that Mom is still going strong as she heads towards 96, but she's not. Not really. She's forgetful as hell, can't hear to save her life and is far too stubborn to consent to having us get her hearing aids. She gets by, day to day.
Getting old ain't for sissies.
Brad Arnold of Three Doors Down died back on the 7th of February. While not a huge fan of their music (I only own one album, and that's a greatest hits album) I did enjoy their music, and their energy.
I love that band for the simple fact of this video ...
I need to get more of their music.
Life comes at you fast, enjoy it while you can.
Peace.
¹ F/A-18F clock given to me by LUSH. Time, in this case, does seem to fly literally.
That's Your Humble Scribe on the left in the photo, striking some odd pose as is my wont. Behind me is my oldest kid brother The Olde Vermonter, he's the one who posted this old (circa mid-60s) photo on the Book of Faces. Moving further to the right there is my maternal grandfather (technically step-grandfather but we didn't view it that way, then my Dad. In front of him are milk cans which Gramp used to collect maple sap, which was then boiled down to make maple syrup. Behind the grown-ups is the sugar house, where all the boiling of sap took place.
Scurrying about in their usual excited frenzy at having us boys visit can be seen Bimmy, part beagle, part bird (more on that in a bit) and traveling out of the picture is Tippy, just his hindquarters and tail made the photo. Tippy was mostly collie, probably other breeds mixed in there, but he looked mostly collie.
It's been over fifty years since I've seen those dogs and I miss them still. They were loyal, affectionate, and terrors to the local woodchuck population. Gramp didn't like woodchucks for the damage they'd cause to Gram's garden so he was an active participant in culling the woodchuck population.
That aside, those two dogs would go crazy when our car would pull up to the farmhouse. They would dash back and forth barely standing still long enough to get petted, yipping in excitement, their happiness showing plainly on the canine faces. Eventually my Mom would tell us to separate ourselves from Tippy and Bimmy and go say hello to our grandparents.
Now I refer to Bimmy as being "part bird" for the simple fact that when he ran, his ears flapped up and down. Pretty standard for a floppy eared dog, I know. But when we'd ride the tractor up to the pasture, Tippy and Bimmy would run behind, Bimmy's ears going up and down for all the world like he was trying to get airborne. So "part beagle, part bird."
Those dogs were devoted to my grandparents and to my Uncle Hank, gram's brother, who also lived on the farm. But one day Gramp told us that the dogs loved us kids above all others. To demonstrate he took us all outside.
He pretended to start coming after us, as if to hit us, and quick as you like, Tippy and Bimmy placed themselves between us and him, snarling, prepared to attack if anyone dared to lay hands on us, including the man they spent a lot of their lives with, day in, day out.
As I get older, I remember times like those more and more. I can remember the smell of the smoke from the sap being boiled, the wood waiting to go into the fire, the mud, the snow. The spring sunshine just starting to make the days a little more pleasant after a long winter.
I remember my grandfather, not a man to express his feelings with words, more by deeds. My Dad, always trying to teach us boys not to be idiots, he had his work cut out for him with me! Mom and Gram in the kitchen cooking and/or baking something.
I remember those two dogs every day. The love they had for us, their excellent companionship and especially their energy. I miss them.
OK, I don't think I've written about this subject before. I don't know if what I'm going to talk about is still being done. I don't think it is, but it had a lot of good results in it's day.
The program was called "Incentive Rides". Members of the non-rated Air Force (AKA not Pilots or WSO's*) who had impressed their chain of command could be selected for an Incentive Ride in one of the Base's jets.
Yes, Beans, in a two seater.
They would get some basic training on emergency equipment just in case things went south. Then they would be put on the flying schedule with a very experienced pilot. They would be briefed on what was going to happen on the ride, and how to deal with it.
Basically, this was pulling G's. When a fighter turns, the pilot rolls the jet into an appropriate angle of bank. Airliners do the same, but it's usually no more that 10 degrees of bank. Fighters generally turn using 70+ degrees of bank.
Oh, did I mention that when a fighter goes into a high bank angle, the G-Load gets pretty high pretty fast. Which can include, if not prepared, the possibility of losing consciousness. That could ruin the mission of the incentive ride because the rules state if someone loses consciousness, whether a person on an incentive ride, or a experienced fighter pilot/WSO, returning to base and landing is mandatory.
Oh yeah, a visit to the Flight Surgeon is also required.
I always enjoyed giving them that ride so I went to great extremes to keep them happy (and avoid them having to visit the Flight Surgeon). It was a reward for excellent effort on their part in getting their job done. As such, in the brief, I would ask what kind of ride they would like. The options were anything from a fantastic view of the local area in complete comfort (OK relative comfort, they WERE strapped in to an ejection seat) up to a ride that would make the best Disneyland E-ticket ride feel like a walk in the park.
I distinctly remember one of the incentive rides I gave. I was scheduled to fly a ride with a Senior Airman (E-3) Crew Chief who'd had a very good record in keeping "his" F-4 mission ready.
In the briefing, I mentioned those briefed options This Airman was from the deep south. He answered. "Sir, I don't wanna do any "Loop-de-Loops".
OK.
We take off and are in the local practice area, driving around like a Cadillac. I'm bored to tears. I hear him ask "Sir, can we do a little faster turn?"
"Why, yes I can". I roll into bank and pull 2 G turn. He says, "That was great, can you turn faster?"
"Why, yes I can". I roll into about 70 degrees of bank and pull on the stick to 6 G's (our g-loading limit). I hear this loud yell over the intercom, so immediately roll wings level and ease off the stick to 1 G.
"Airman, are you ok?"
"Sir, that was Sheet Hot!"
I immediately went into demonstrating high speed, 2 or 3 G maneuvering. After a bit, he asks "Sir, can we do a Loop Dee Loop?"
A loop is a 4 or more G maneuver.
I start the maneuver.
At the top of the loop, I look in the mirror, he's got his head back looking at the ground above him. He lets out a "Yeee HAWWWW!' over the intercom.
Brought a smile to my face, yes it did.
Suffice it to say, whenever I got assigned his aircraft, I got treated quite well.
Based on that ride, I volunteered to fly any incentive ride I could. The people that were going for the ride were the cream of the crop, so this was a reward for both of us.
This was another ride I knew about. Somebody I'm deeply proud of, even now, got selected for an incentive ride in the F-4E. The pilot is on the left, next to him is the Wing Executive officer, next is his assistant executive officer, next is my Weapons System Office (WSO AKA Back Seater), Me, then my Flight Commander.
The young lady in the middle is also my wife. One of the traditions of flying a fighter in the USAF is soaking one down on their final flight at that assignment. When she landed the tradition was carried out.
I asked the Pilot how she did. No problems and a lot of fun. Excellent!
We received orders shortly thereafter. She and I were going to Holloman AFB to fly AT-38s.
That would be Captain/Mrs. Juvat in the back seat
Fast forward 3 years. We're now at Holloman and about to leave, Mrs J (AKA Capt/Mrs J) gets scheduled for another incentive ride. There is one obstacle, she is pregnant with our son. The flight surgeon said "No" to the flight. So, they do a high speed taxi ride.
Shortly thereafter, it's my turn, the squadron members (who weren't flying, briefing or debriefing met me at the jet with fire extinguishers to wet me down and present me with a cheap bottle of Champagne. I had enjoyed the time, but had bigger, better, faster things ahead of me.
The guy to the left in the picture? Yeah, I took some gun camera film of him
Yep, that's me after my last ride in the Eagle, also the last airplane I was at the controls of. Mrs J (at the time Major J) only got a taxi ride in the Eagle because of a medical condition which is obvious in this picture. MBD was born a month or so later.
I really enjoyed taking folks on incentive rides, they were satisfying to both parties.
So..a little music about the subject, just because it seems right!
*WSO -Weapons System Officer. Basically the non-pilot on board a fighter responsible for a lot of different jobs in some fighters (F-4 and F-111, back in the day, F-15E nowadays)
